terminator_extendedfandomcom-20200214-history
What to do
This page details what to do, and what not to do with a sequel to Terminator 1&2. LEAVE 1&2 ALONE [[The Terminator|''The Terminator]] and [[Terminator 2: Judgement Day|Terminator 2: Judgement Day]] are their own self contained story. They follow a simple storyline. The story ends with Judgement Day being averted, the story of John Connor and Sarah Connor is finished. * In '''Terminator: Genesys', 1&2 are retconned however; Skynet sends another T-1000 to 197? when Sarah Connor is a young girl, and another reprogrammed T-800 is sent to protect Sarah. The T-1000 is destroyed, and the T-800, known as Pops raised Sarah, training her to be ready for the original T-800 and Kyle Reese's arrival from 2029. This being said, Sarah and John are two people out of billions, so potentially anyone could lead to a Skynet type A.I and possible apocalypse happening. Sequels that MAKE SENSE Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Genesys and now Terminator: Dark Fate all follow a main motif: a terminator sent by Skynet to the past to kill off an 'important person', as well as another character being sent to the past to protect that person. It's been done twice already with the first two movies. Continuity One thing to keep in mind is the events of the Original Timeline. Terminator 2: Judgement Day caused Skynet and Judgement Day to not exist. Miles Dyson died, and never developed what would become Skynet. JUDGEMENT DAY NEVER HAPPENED, but because fans wanted a third movie, and because T2 made a shit-ton of money, a sequel was made, but not something like a sequel focusing on humanity's war against Skynet, like what we get in Terminator: Salvation, but instead we got Terminator 3, focusing on another Terminator sent back from the future (a future that now shouldn't even exist) and Skynet and Judgement day happen with the movie telling you Judgement Day was "inevitable", which makes the events of Terminators 1&2 completely meaningless. Later on, in 2019, we have Terminator: Dark Fate, with an opening scene of another T-800 coming back and killing John Connor. After routing for John Connor to live for the entirety of Terminator 2, killing him off out of the blue ruins our investment of the character. STOP WITH THE REFERENCES A reference here and there isn't a problem, but an example of a reference going too far would be the T-1000 in Terminator: Genesys; another T-1000 who's wearing a police uniform, like the original. Why is he wearing a police uniform? Because Robert Patrick's T-1000 was wearing a police uniform, I guess. "I'll be back" is an unofficial motto of the Terminator franchise, but not every movie has to have that said in some context. The Truth The reality behind the Terminator franchise is that it was never meant to be a franchise in the first place. T2 ended Judgement Day, it changed the future. Salvation was the only logical way to go (but the ultimate problem with Terminator Salvation is that it was set after the events of T3, not the original timeline's events before the events of T1. The only course you could go if you're making a sequel that makes sense is setting it in the original timeline (before Kyle Reese and the original T-800 were sent back), or setting it straight after the events of T2 (such as during the events of the Sarah Connor Chronicles; minus the T-900, which shouldn't exist since Judgement Day was prevented)